Understanding Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Collaborations: A Campus-Wide Survey of Obesity Experts

This paper reports a campus-wide survey of obesity experts that allowed us to understand organizational factors and collaboration patterns affiliated with health sciences research. By combining Google and PubMed searches and the snowball sampling method, we identified and then surveyed 113 obesity experts on their collaborators, research interests, and affiliations with academic departments and research centers. The response rate was 61%. We describe the diversity in organizational affiliations, research interests, journals for disseminating results, and collaboration patterns among the respondents. We also analyze the challenges and research opportunities related to identifying experts and forging interdisciplinary health sciences collaborations. We conclude with possible success factors for sustained interdisciplinary collaborations.